Opinion Blog

Obama inaugural speech’s hollow core

It’s a little over 24 hours since President Obama’s inaugural speech, and I’ve since read at least 50 columns on the topic. One of the best, by our former Washington bureau chief Carl Leubsdorf, will appear on Viewpoints tomorrow. Carl’s column earns my praise because, from a liberal point of view, he makes the case that Obama’s entire second-term agenda is DOA if he can’t make “the hard choices” that are needed to start eating away at our nation’s debt.

I watched yesterday’s inaugural festivities at a neighbor’s house, a party full of stalwart Obama supporters who robustly toasted and cheered many of his soaring promises. I am a fan of a lot of those promises too. But afterward, when I asked fellow guests how all of those promises will come to pass when we are increasingly pinned beneath the rubble of debt and entitlement shortfalls, I got little response. No one seemed particularly worried that the nation is on an unsustainable fiscal path.

Mark Davis, whom I almost never agree with, closes his column on tomorrow’s page with this: As repeated polls show majorities of Americans are concerned about runaway spending, millions registering those concerns voted for the man who has no intention of fixing it.

I am one of those people. But I’ve maintained that Obama does intend to fix it. After yesterday’s inaugural address, I’m less hopeful. For all the wonderful individual moments in the speech, I went away dissatisfied because the president’s progressive and pragmatic “to dos” depend on this nation getting its finances in order.

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The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board was the first editorial board in the nation to use a blog to openly discuss hot topics and issues among its members and with readers. Our intent is to pull back the curtain on the daily process of producing the unsigned editorials that reflect the opinion of the newspaper, and to share analysis and opinion on issues of interest to board members and invited guest bloggers.